back in the real world

I am finally tottering back into the world of the functioning, if not fully fit.  That's a relief, after a week of sitting in an armchair with nothing to do but try and jam an 8 into a Sudoko square that already has an eight in it, or fret about dustbins, train timetables and whether the squirrel is on the bird table again like a sort of snot-ridden Victor Meldrew.  When I am dictator the phrase 'just a cold' will be excised from the English language.  Granted, they are not fatal or even permanently disabling, but colds are completely disgusting to the sufferer and everybody around them, and represent lost days of your life.

I was supposed to be making something for the buffet for tonight's beekeepers' AGM.  I'd been quite looking forward to it, and gone through my baking books to find some recipes for tray bakes and interesting confections in paper cases, but in the end I opted out and decided to solve the problem by throwing money at it.  I am still snivelling badly enough to make me think I shouldn't handle food other people are going to eat, especially baked goods where you have to prise them out of their tins and cut them up, or decorate them.  If it were a stew where all the ingredients were going to be put in the oven and boiled for six hours then dished out at arm's length with a ladle that might be different.  I made my way carefully to Waitrose, and bought some tubs of mini chocolate and caramel things.

I'm generally in favour of home made cake.  It's nicer, and if you only have cake when you or somebody you know has got round to making one, everyone probably ends up eating less cake, which is a good thing from a health point of view.  I think of it as cheaper too, because I like baking, but if I were to factor in my time at even the minimum wage then it's probably more expensive than shop cake.  It feels vaguely infra dig to take something bought, when you've said you'll make something, but in the circumstances my tubs of cookies (on special offer at two tubs for four pounds) felt like a bargain.

Then I typed up the music society minutes, which have been outstanding for over a week.  They mostly made sense, which was a relief given that the whole thing is by no means fresh in my mind any more, but you can see the discussion beginning to get disjointed at the point where several people realised they were out of time and had to be somewhere else.

At tonight's AGM I have a nasty feeling I may be supposed to present the Membership Secretary's report as well as my own Treasurer's report, since she won't be there due to car problems.  She emailed me a spreadsheet yesterday, but I can't say I'm looking forward to presenting somebody else's spreadsheet to a room full of people.  Then tomorrow I'd better make a start on my tax return, which in turn means I need to sort my filing out.  Oh, the joys of recovery.  I'll be pining for another day spent staring at the bird table by the time I've finished that.